Hygon Dhyana chip tips up in China

Hygon Dhyana CPUs, which are said to be almost identical to those from AMD's EPYC range, are now starting to become available in China.

According to Hexus, AMD has had to duck and dive a little to satisfy the legalities of the x86 cross-licensing agreement and US government policy. However, it appears to have managed it and enjoy significant royalty payments from its Chinese partners in the not too distant future.

Tom's Hardware reports that AMD has kept the right side of any legal or business watchdog using a Joint Venture with THATIC and agreed to license its x86 and SoC IP for chip development. THAT founded HMC and Hygon. AMD holds 51 percent of HMC, and 30 per cent of Hygon, with the remainder of each held by THAT. Crucially, the majority AMD-owned HMC produces the chips, which satisfies the AMD and Intel x86 cross-licensing agreements because the IP remains with a company owned primarily by AMD.

HMC licensed the IP to Hygon, which designs the x86 chips and then flogged the design back to HMC. Later a foundry paid by HMC produces the chips which are then transferred back to Hygon to sell as Dhyana processors.

The Hygon Dhyana CPUs are only to be sold in China. AMD should benefit from a considerable stream of licensing revenue thanks to demand within the China datacentre market. In other China x86 news earlier this year, we note that VIA and Zhaoxin are working together with the aim of creating products competitive with AMD Ryzen 2 processors by 2019.